Malpas Castle Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Malpas.
In the historic county of Cheshire.
Modern Authority of Cheshire.
1974 county of Cheshire.
Medieval County of Cheshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ486472
Latitude 53.01998° Longitude -2.76720°

Malpas Castle Hill has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The Castle of Malpas has long been destroyed, and only the circular mound, 40 yds in diam., remains. The Castle ditch has been traced for some distance (Mackenzie 1897). The church,formerly a private chapel to the castle, was once within the castle precincts (Kenyon 1888-90).
This is a motte, it has an average height of 3.7m. and is grass covered. There is no trace of a bailey or of a ditch. Published survey (25") checked and found correct (F1 TPW 20-OCT-64). (PastScape)

Castle Hill was the site of keep of Norman Castle of Barons of Malpas. Castle covered good deal of neighboring ground & church was within castle precinct. Nothing of the Norman Castle is now visible, except for a mound which is160ft in diam. Kenyon suggests church a private chapel to castle but in view of church's previous importance this seems unlikely. Castle ditch has been traced for some distance. Motte has average height of 3.7m & is grass covered. No trace of bailey or ditch. Large truncated earthwork cone situated in strategic position on a spur of the Broxton Hills. Motte lies N of St Oswald's church and graveyard extends to S & W sides of the site. Bailey was probably originally attached to the south side of Motte but the area is heavily disturbed and not included in scheduled area. (Cheshire HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1012105, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 13420
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 68683.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 1689/2.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- CastleUK.net
  Charles Taylor's ecastles
  Malpas, Cheshire
Books
- Grimsditch, Brian, Nevell, Michael and Nevell, Richard, 2012, Buckton Castle and the Castles of the North West England (University of Salford Archaeological Monograph 2) p. 110
  Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Lancashire and Cheshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 20
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 17 (slight)
  Cullen, P.W. and Hordern, R., 1986, Castles of Cheshire (Crossbow Books) p. 10
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 68
  Ridgway, Maurice Hill, 1958, 'Medieval Castles' in Sylvester, D. and Nulty, G. (eds), The Historical Atlas of Cheshire (Cheshire Community Council) p. 24-5
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1897, Castles of England Vol. 2 p. 176-7 online copy
  Ormerod, G., 1882 (2edn), History of the County Palatine and city of Chester (London) Vol. 2 p. 595
  Ormerod, G., 1819, History of the County Palatine and city of Chester (London) Vol. 2 p. 328- (tenurial history) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1963, 'Early castles in Wales and the Marches: a preliminary list' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 112 p. 77-124
  Harrison, 1907, Journal of the Chester and North Wales Architectural Archaeological and Historic Society Vol. 25 p. 151
  Kenyon, Rev. W.T., 1888-90, Journal of the Chester and North Wales Architectural Archaeological and Historic Society Vol. 3 p. 163
  Clark, G.T., 1889, 'Contribution towards a complete list of moated mounds or burhs' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 46 p. 197-217 esp. 201 online copy
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Rickard, John, 2002, The Castle Community. The Personnel of English and Welsh Castles, 1272-1422 (Boydell Press) (lists sources for 1272-1422) p. 139
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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